David Blair
'He has a fine carriage, handsome appearance, good proportions, pleasing stage personality, good feet and no mean technique. We shall see what happens to him.' So said Richard Buckle in 1949, reviewing a 17 year old dancer who had already been in the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet for 2 years, and had recently changed his name from David Butterfield to David Blair. What happened to him was that he became the company's leading dancer, and then went to Covent Garden where he rose to the top of the senior company, on the way creating a series of brilliant roles, including the hero in that modern classic, Ashton's La Fille mal Gardée. Blair was born in Yorkshire in 1932, and took up dancing - like so many other boys - after watching his sister's ballet class. At 14 he won a scholarship to the Sadler's Wells Ballet School, with the rather strange proviso that he would be givn a course of growth-inducing injections if he didn't get any taller in his first term. Fortunately he grew enough to satisfy the authorities, but - presumably because of his size - he was seen at the school as a potential character dancer rather than as someone destined for the great classical roles. Others saw him differently, and for his debut in Casse-Noisette he was coached by none less than Anton Dolin, who thought him highly promising. Balanchine chose him for the lead when he created Trumpet Concerto for the company, but it was John Cranko who gave him the most famous roles of his early career - the best of them being the gallant Captain Belaye in Pineapple Poll, one of the most frequently performed of all British ballets. Blair married another of the company's principal's, Maryon Lane, and they later had twin daughters. The move to Covent Garden came in 1953, and like others before and since, Blair at first had some problems with being a smaller fish in a bigger pool. However within a few years he was dancing the leads in all the classics, and Cranko continued to make roles for him, including the Prince in the original version of The Prince of the Pagodas. In that he danced with Beriosova, but in the classics he was usually teamed with Nadia Nerina, and it was for their partnership that Ashton made La Fille. There is a lot of Blair's character in Colas - a rather down-to-earth, no nonsense young man, not lacking in confidence, and one who could pirouette practically for ever. Blair was perhaps the only dancer who could have real cause to feel that his career was damaged by the arrival of Nureyev. He must have believed that when Michael Somes retired, he would take over as Fonteyn's partner and the company's leading man; but the timing was just wrong, and he had to watch as the younger man walked off with 'his' partner and all the publicity. He gave up dancing much sooner than he might have hoped, and rather unexpectedly began to built a good reputation as a producer of the classics, especially in the States. He was preparing to take up an appointment as director of the Norwegian Ballet when he died very suddenly aged only 43. {top}
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